Life of a Saltine

Working hard has never been so easy.  Hands down, SALT has been the best job I’ve ever worked at.  As a professional in the food industry, I have already progressed a long way within the one year I have been working in the Pearl St. corner restaurant. I joined the SALT team as a back-waiter, full of confidence from my training at the Flagstaff House.  It wasn’t hard to instantly love the fine dining and homely aspect SALT has to offer. I also enjoy how it is up to the staff to turn SALT into the to-be place in the foodiest town in America.  I was actually able to throw in suggestions of how to help smooth over the small kinks the new restaurant faced within the back-waiting position.  Only a few months after I joined SALT, my hard work landed me my first server position.

            Since I am such a young server, I heavily relied on the other senior servers who all have incredible credentials. SALT has molded a deep family attitude within the staff, so I have no problem learning tricks of the trade from the servers and managers.  Now everyday I feel more and more comfortable with making sure our guests have the time of their lives and want to come back.  At SALT, we strive for excellence and are always looking to improve.  Therefore, I took it upon myself to continue to improve as well.  In order to be the best server I can be, I decided to observe one of our best servers.  Mike Joyce dazzles his guests; a lot of this has to do with his knowledge of wine.  He knows so much, because he studied hard to earn his introductory sommelier certification.  I had zero wine knowledge before entering SALT, so it seemed far-fetched for me to be like Mike.  However, thanks to our passionate Beverage Director Evan Faber, obtaining a sommelier certification seemed manageable. 

Evan has been teaching the SALT servers about wine and cocktails in weekly classes.  Whether it is a blind tasting, printed study guide, or even field trip to a local brewery, his passion has rubbed onto all of us.  This made me really understand that food is only half the fun of dining. The right beverage can make the food even better and the food can also improve the beverage.  It is a win-win for everybody.  Eventually, I decided it was time to work with Evan to study for my own sommelier certification.  Yes, I studied my butt off, but I can now tell you that learning about wine is fun!  Now the senior servers I look up to are asking me for detailed wine information. It’s pretty cool.